Cops Cleared In Jail Suicide

ST. LOUIS – A federal jury found in favor of two Pagedale police officers in a civil trial over a prisoner suicide in 2005. Kelvin Dobbs’ family sued in 2006, after Dobbs hanged himself with a belt in the Pagedale jail on Oct. 2, 2005.

The family claimed that police officers Hugh Ross and H. Turner knew Dobbs was suicidal and should have taken away his belt and shoelaces. Pagedale attorney Mark Zoole acknowledged that it was a rules violation not to take away the belt and shoelaces, but he said Dobbs had been contemplating suicide since he was 9 and had tried several times. Pagedale is 9 miles northwest of St. Louis.